After that, I spent some time reading about a guy who--despite being a brilliant physicist, and brighter leader--couldn't quite get it all together. He spent some time at the Institute for Advanced Study, another neat place, later in life--which is when the author met him. Most of the book, though is about Oppenheimer's life and studies before the Manhattan Project, followed by his tenure as the director there, and then the hearings which resulted in Oppenheimer losing his security clearance.

It's a well-written book, although it could stand to be better organized and planned, and Bernstein's interjections of personal anecdotes make Oppenheimer and some of the other characters come alive. One gets a feel for what it must have been like as the US became the place to do work in quantum mechanics, what the dynamics of Los Alamos were like, and who these physicists were. Rabi comes across as sagacious, Teller seems like a self-absorbed jerk, and the younger ones--Feynamn, et al.--are seen in all their youth and their promise.

Bernstein's book is worth picking up. If you're at all interested in physics, you'll enjoy this chracter sketch.

A Useful Thought about Reading...

"Every reader, as he reads, is actually the reader of himself. The writer's work is only a kind of optical instrument he provides the reader so he can discern what he might never have seen in himself without this book. The reader's recognition in himself of what the book says is the proof of the book's truth."- À la recherche du temps perdu.

Books on the Go

I frequently forget to update this as I move through things. When I do update it, I'm generally in the midst of a book I expect I may spend some time reading.

Beautiful & Pointless

- David Orr

(as of September 20, 2011)

A Vague Disclaimer is Nobody's Friend

My blog entries are my opinions. They are only opinions. Ça c'est tout. My opinions can, and do, change. Sometimes. When I quote, I endeavour to do so accurately. I welcome both email and posted comments with differing opinions.